Scientists working on the development and genetics of vertebrates have very few interactions with the community of comparative biologists. The major goal of the proposed meeting is to bring these groups together, with a specific focus on the structure of the head, to foster interactions and exchanges that may open up new avenues of interdisciplinary research. The symposium and associated activities (contributed paper and poster sessions) will take place over two days at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) in Jan 2008 in San Antonio, TX. The symposium covers a broad range of topics associated with the vertebrate head, including embryology, developmental genetics, and comparative anatomy. The twelve invited speakers include researchers using newly available embryos of certain primitive vertebrate species, genome sequences, and imaging technology to understand fundamental aspects of head structure and function. All of these have been chosen for their interest in comparative biology. The selection of speakers includes many junior investigators, and both graduate students and postdoctoral fellows will be encouraged to attend and present posters. Symposium papers will be published as special issue of the Journal of Integrative and Comparative Biology. This will be an important first step in making the vast amount of developmental and genetic information generated in model species accessible to the comparative community, as well as educating developmental geneticists and embryologists in the wealth of comparative information in non-model species pointing to a segmental ground plan for the head. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]